This invention relates to lasers and to an improved circuit and method for pulsing a pump lamp.
Flashlamps are commonly used to provide an optical pumping means for Q-switched Nd:YAG and other lasers. The conventional method of pulsing flashlamps is by discharging a pulse forming network in the interval between flashlamp pulses. A pulse forming network is comprised of capacitors to store electrical energy and inductances to limit the discharge current into the flashlamp load. At high repetition rates, this requires large circulating currents in the pulse forming network which leads to inefficiency. The power supply for charging the pulse forming network must be essentially a constant current supply, and this involves large circulating currents, and thus inefficiency, if the primary power source is a standard constant voltage source. Further, the flashlamp current pulse length can be controlled only by changing the component values in the pulse formimng network.